​ UTVA Leadership Team Updates2017-2018

This is directly for the USBE Special Education. Since this specifically address the use of email responses with student information, please take the time to review and implement the information below. Remember as a team we specifically utilize first initial and last name or just first initial. If parents are using first names and the email references the last name you must redact the name by replacing it with just an initial or using “student.”

EMAIL AND STUDENT PRIVACY Introduction to FERPA The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that prohibits the improper disclosure of personally identifiable information derived from education records. FERPA requires schools to provide certain privacy protections for education records that they maintain. Additionally, FERPA affords parents and adult students certain rights with respect to student education records, including:! The right to inspect and review student education records;! The right to request an amendment of student education records;! The right to provide written consent before the LEA discloses personally identifiable information (PII) from the student’s education records, except for certain exceptions specified in FERPA; and,! The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning an LEA’s alleged failure to comply with FERPA.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Personally identifiable information (PII) contained in educational records relating to IDEA-eligible students is subject to FERPA requirements and includes:! A student’s name;! The name(s) of a student’s parents or other family members;! A student’s address;! Personal identifiers (e.g., social security number, student number);! Other indirect identifiers (date of birth, place of birth, mother’s maiden name, race, ethnicity); and,! Other information that, alone or in combination, is linked or linkable to a specific student that would allow a reasonable person in the school community to identify the student with a reasonable certainty.

The Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) has held that student ID numbers and social security numbers constitute personally identifiable information since they are “easily traceable” to the student. Letter to Shea, 36 IDELR 7 (FPCO 2001).

Email Transmission of PII Due to the rapidly evolving use of digital communication and record keeping, traditional FERPA rules and regulations offer little guidance in regards to electronic communications. Some hearing officers or courts have taken the position that emails that are not maintained as part of the student’s records are not FERPA records. However, given the fact that emails are frequently used as evidence in due process hearings and State complaint investigations, school staff should exercise caution in documenting student concerns in email communications.Regardless of whether email communications qualify as “education records” under FERPA, unencrypted email is not a secure method for transmitting confidential information or sensitive data over the internet. Anytime FERPA protected information is emailed, there is a risk that it could be accessed by unintended recipients. As such, USBE policy prohibits LEAs from transmitting PII over email.

Responding to Messages Containing PII Many parents may share their concerns about their student’s special education services via email to school staff. In these instances, school staff must redact any PII from the email prior to responding to the parent or forwarding the email. For example, in instances where a student’s name is used, school staff should delete the student’s name from the message and replace it with a generic term (e.g., “student” or [Student]) or use some other indicator such as a highlight or symbol to indicate where the redaction occurred. In the subsequent message, school staff should include a short statement to the email recipient indicating that PII within the email has been redacted in compliance with FERPA and USBE policies to avoid the unsecure transmission of student sensitive information. The USBE follows this same procedure whenever school staff or parents send an email containing PII to USBE staff.

Best Practices for Avoiding Inadvertent Disclosure Before sending any email communication about a student with a parent, administrator, or colleague, school staff should carefully consider whether that information could be shared in another way. Staff members should avoid the use of email for documenting substantive matters and concerns. If an email is intended to document a substantive matter or concern, it should be printed and included in the student’s file.If communication about a student must be sent over email, school staff should:! Not include more information in an email than necessary;! Double check the recipient’s email address, especially for bulk emails and Cc’d messages; and! Ensure an attached file is the file they intended to send.

In the rare circumstance when school staff determine that PII must be transmitted over email, the information should be in a protected file attachment, not in the body of the email, followed by a separate email containing a strong password to access the file.

Attached are four documents with important information.

This week, we are looking at Title IX, since I am also the Title IX coordinator for our school.

Department of Education Issues New Interim Guidance on Campus Sexual MisconductNew Q&A will serve as interim guide until the conclusion of notice and comment rulemakingWidely criticized 2011, 2014 guidance also withdrawnSEPTEMBER 22, 2017Contact: Press Office, (202) 401-1576, press@ed.govWashington — Building on her remarks from September 7, 2017, regarding the Department's commitment to protecting all students from discrimination, today U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced the release of a new interim Q&A for schools on how to investigate and adjudicate allegations of campus sexual misconduct under federal law.

"This interim guidance will help schools as they work to combat sexual misconduct and will treat all students fairly," said DeVos. "Schools must continue to confront these horrific crimes and behaviors head-on. There will be no more sweeping them under the rug. But the process also must be fair and impartial, giving everyone more confidence in its outcomes."In the coming months, the Department intends to engage in rulemaking on Title IX responsibilities arising from complaints of sexual misconduct. The Department will solicit comments from stakeholders and the public during the rulemaking process, a legal procedure the prior administration ignored.In the interim, the newly-released Q&A on Campus Sexual Misconduct explains the Department's current expectations of schools, and the Department will continue to rely on its Revised Sexual Harassment Guidance, which was informed by a public comment process and issued in 2001, as well as the Dear Colleague Letter on Sexual Harassment issued on January 25, 2006."In the coming months, hearing from survivors, campus administrators, parents, students and experts on sexual misconduct will be vital as we work to create a thoughtful rule that will benefit students for years to come. We also will continue to work with schools and community leaders to better address preventing sexual misconduct through education and early intervention," DeVos added.The Department of Education is also withdrawing the Dear Colleague Letter on Sexual Violence dated April 4, 2011, and the Questions and Answers on Title IX Sexual Violence dated April 29, 2014. The withdrawn documents ignored notice and comment requirements, created a system that lacked basic elements of due process and failed to ensure fundamental fairness.DeVos concluded, "As I said earlier this month, the era of rule by letter is over. The Department of Education will follow the proper legal procedures to craft a new Title IX regulation that better serves students and schools."Press Call Information:The Department will hold a background press call at 10:45 a.m. open to credentialed members of the media. Media interested in participating should RSVP to press@ed.gov to receive additional information.FAQs on Updated Campus Sexual Misconduct GuidanceWhat is the purpose of the Q&A on Campus Sexual Misconduct?

Provides examples of interim measures that may be appropriate under the circumstances

Summarizes what procedures a school should follow to adjudicate a finding of responsibility for sexual misconduct

Describes what constitutes an "equitable" investigation

Explains a school's obligations concerning appeals

Clarifies appropriate evidentiary standards

Informs schools of their responsibilities concerning notifications to parties of the outcomes of disciplinary proceedings

What are a school's obligations under Title IX regarding sexual misconduct?

Schools must address sexual misconduct that is severe, persistent or pervasive.

Schools must conduct a fair and impartial investigation in a timely manner.

Title IX investigations must be led by a person free of actual or reasonably perceived conflicts of interest and biases.

Schools must designate a Title IX Coordinator.

Do schools have flexibility to establish fair procedures?

Schools have the discretion to apply either the preponderance of the evidence standard or the clear and convincing evidence standard.

Schools are not required to allow appeals; however, a school may choose to allow appeals solely by the responding party or by both parties.

Schools may permit an informal resolution, such as mediation, if it is appropriate and if all parties voluntarily agree.

Schools should provide written notice to the responding party of the allegations, including sufficient details and with adequate time to prepare a response before any initial interview.

OCR recommends schools provide concurrent, written notice of the outcome of disciplinary proceedings to the reporting and responding parties.

Does the rescission letter or the Q&A add legal requirements?The rescission letter and Q&A do not add requirements to applicable law.Does the rescission letter or the Q&A limit the right of a person to file a Title IX complaint?No. A school must adopt and publish grievance procedures that provide for a prompt and equitable resolution of complaints of sex discrimination, including sexual misconduct. Moreover, whether or not a student files a complaint of alleged sexual misconduct or otherwise asks the school to take action, where the school knows or reasonably should know of an incident of sexual misconduct, the school must take steps to understand what occurred and to respond appropriately. In particular, when sexual misconduct is so severe, persistent or pervasive as to deny or limit a student's ability to participate in or benefit from the recipient's school's programs or activities, a hostile environment exists and the school must respond.How can I get help from OCR?OCR offers technical assistance to help schools achieve voluntary compliance with the civil rights laws it enforces and works with schools to develop approaches to preventing and addressing discrimination. A school should contact the OCR enforcement office serving its jurisdiction for technical assistance.

AEF School Profile Page for your reviewPlease go to the UTVA AEF School Profile page on Sharepoint and let me know if you want any changes or additions. I'd like it to be finalized for the quarterly review.

We will have LIVE staff call Friday, Oct 27th from 12-1. Plan now to be distraction free with your us, your HS team!

It is an entire High School effort this week to get our students up to passing in their block courses.

Teachers, please reach out to Mentors, FAST, Counselors, Admin, and operations staff for any help you need with this final week of BLOCK 1! ALL KIDS ARE OUR KIDS!Thank you for your hard work, passion, and continued forward thinking!Have a great RED RIBBON WEEK!!

This month our focus for our walk through observations is on DOK levels and a 6 minute review, looking specifically for use of mountain math and language

Data Driven Instruction Meetings

Our MTSS focus is on the latest interim, instructional level groups and what is happening as far as targeted instruction goes for each group

Talking about overall class trends and how instruction is being changed to go back and reteach some of the standards that were missed by the majority of the class

Staff Culture

We had a fun Fall Break contest and had a lot of connections happening over the break

We are focusing on clearing the path for teachers and getting them to let us know what they need in order to be successful and taking quick action to help where we can

One of our goals with every conversation with a teacher is to make them feel like the most important person at that moment. No distractions, no multi-tasking during meetings. Make sure we motivate and lift each one in every conversation.

Student Culture:

Red Ribbon Week, lots of fun going on this week!

Jr. Ambassador video series launches this week and we are really looking forward to begin having students motivate students

Grade level outings have been a HUGE success with amazing turnouts and outcomes from each one! Pictures here

Professional Development:

We have a K8 all school i-ready training today that will help us get a better idea on how to use the data we’re getting from the program

We will be completing our required minutes in Edivate on Friday as a part of teacher work day

Instruction

Instruction is strong. So much goodness happening in tier 1 with an amazing class connect average attendance of 80%. They are coming and our teachers are able to have influence over them multiple times per day.

Tier II Small group instruction for tier 2 is starting up for the 2nd cycle tomorrow with an increased expected time in i-ready to 15 minutes per day.

Tier III targeted instruction from our amazing interventionist team is strong and getting stronger. Engagement is a struggle down there but we’re finding ways to pull them in. Their i-ready usage is monitored closely and they are messaged frequently according to their participation.

I’ve recently been impressed by the writing plan that has been built and implemented since the beginning of school and it has plans to build on itself and assess writing. The MS team has developed something amazing!

Science in the MS is struggling a bit but we have plans to supplement in that area with more support.